Vada Pav is one of my favorite street foods. It tastes heavenly with a soft dinner roll type Pav bread smeared with two types of chutnies (one green and another red) and absolutely divine tasting potato vada. Traditionally the potato vada is deep fried in oil but I got the recipe of potato vada from Sharmiee’s website and I was completely sold by her method to not deep fry the vada but to pan fry them in Kuzhi Paniyaram pan(This pan is available as Danish puffs pan or pancake puffs pan). The resulting vada was super tasty, guilt-free with just a drizzle of oil. When I was searching for a good recipe for pav bread to include in my bread baking theme for BM#15, day 6, I stumbled on chefinyou and I swear I’ll not be buying any more pav breads in the future. The bread was the biggest highlight as my family just couldn’t believe that the pavs were indeed made at home. When I removed these cute breads from the oven and checked the texture of the bread, I was running around the house like a child celebrating the success of making the best pav bread I’ve seen or tasted. They were so soft and I wish I could have them as my pillow (Oh! I know thats a little dramatic but its only in my imagination!!!). You know, pavs can be very versatile, they can be used in many dishes like pav bhaji, vada pav (recipe below), as dinner rolls or simply as is with tea/coffee.

Ingredients:

Bread flour — 3 cups

Active dry yeast — 1 packet (about 2 1/4 tsp)

Lukewarm water (107-110F) — 1/4 cup

Milk — 1 1/4 cups + few tbsps for glazing

Butter — 3 Tbsp

Sugar — 2 Tbsp

Salt — 3/4 tsp

Method:

1. Microwave milk and butter till butter melts in the milk. Set aside. In a bowl combine warm water, sugar, and yeast. Stir well and set aside to proof (it will froth up and takes about 5-10 mins).

2. Add salt and milk-butter mixture to the proofed yeast. Add flour little by little and combine well. Sprinkle very little flour on a surface and knead the dough with heel of your palm and adding flour only when needed to make a soft dough. Don’t add too much flour as this may tend to make the dough very hard and the pav bread will not be fluffy. The kneading takes about 10 minutes by hand and yes, you will tone your arms which is an added bonus.

3. Place the dough on a lightly oiled bowl and cover with a plastic wrap. Place the dough in a warm area for the first rise.

4. Punch down the dough and deflate them. Roll the dough in to a square/rectangle and cut them in to 12 equal pieces. Flatten each dough little bit and pull them like how you would do for a stuffed paratha or dumpling. This helps in getting a smooth top, and roll them on your palm in to a round shape.Repeat making rounds from each piece and place them in a greased cake pan. Loosely cover them and let them sit in a warm area again for the second rise.

5. Glaze the buns with milk to get a shiny top and bake them in a pre-heated 350F oven for 20-30 minutes or until golden brown. Let it cool before serving them as vada pav or pav bhaji or just as a dinner roll or with butter and jam. Enjoy!!!

Note:

According to chefinyou site, all purpose flour can be substituted for bread flour but may need 2-3 more cups of flour and the results are totally unaltered.

For the Vada:

Ingredients:

Potatoes — 3 medium sized (boiled and mashed)

Cumin seeds — 1/2 tsp

Ginger-garlic paste — 1 Tbsp

Onion – 1 medium sized (finely chopped)

Turmeric powder — 1/2 tsp

Salt — to taste

Chilli powder — 1/2 tsp

Oil — 1 Tbsp

Coriander leaves — 1 Tbsp

Besan flour (Channa dal flour) — 1/4 cup

Rice flour — 1 Tbsp

Chilli powder — 1/2 tsp

Salt — to taste

Baking soda — a pinch

Oil — few teaspoons to drizzle in the paniyaram pan. (If deep frying, use oil as needed for deep frying).

Method:

1. In a kadai, heat 1 tbsp of oil, add jeera and let it splutter. Add ginger-garlic paste, onions one after another and fry them till the onions turn translucent. Add mashed potatoes, turmeric powder, chilli powder, and salt and mix well. Add coriander leaves, mix well and switch off the flame. Let it cool completely before making the vada.

2. Combine besan flour, rice flour, chilli powder, salt, baking soda with water. (I used 1/4 cup of water to make the batter). Make small balls of the potato mixture prepared in step 1. Heat the paniyaram pan and when hot, dip each balls in the batter from step 2 and drop in the paniyaram holes. Drizzle little oil, and after about 2 minutes, flip each ball and cook on both sides. Transfer in to plate. Repeat making the vadas.

For Red Garlic Chutney:

Coconut — 5 Tbsp

Red Chillies — 1 ( I needed way more as we like it spicy, so please adjust the amount as per your taste. Also part red chillies and part red chilli powder can be added to make this chutney and the red chilli powder gives a nice red color)

Garlic — 4 medium pods

Tamarind paste — 1 tsp

Salt — to taste

Method:

Dry roast coconut and tamarind till lightly brown. Grind together with all other ingredients. Do not add water as the chutney should be like a paste.

For Assembling the Vada Pavs:

Slit the pav bun but not completely slicing and spread green chutney on one side of the bun and red chutney on the other side. Keep a vada on between and garnish with fine sev. Close the pav and enjoy the bliss!!!

To Check out the Blogging Marathon page for the other Blogging Marathoners doing BM#15 click here.

Thank you for visiting Sizzlingveggies.com. If this is your first time here -- a Warm Welcome. Get ready with your chef hat, apron, and a big SMILE to cook some tasty recipes from around the world. Don't hesitate to join my Facebook Fan Page where I share my passion for cooking, baking, blogging and never ending sizzling recipes.

you have touched the perfect nerve for someone who has lived all her life in mumbai…what more can i ask to see all the things being prepared in one single post…lovely..liekd the idea of using appe (panirayam griddle) for making the vadas, keeps the oil in check

We are big fans of vada pav too 🙂 you have drone everything at home wow simply wow . It’s turned out so well jayanthi . Bookmarking it and would love to try it . I need to pick up the pan soon thanks for the reference